It was expected that Tom Moss, who was appointed Shelby County Commissioner
last fall, would try to get himself assimilated as a member in good standing
of the commission’s seven-member GOP majority. After all, nominal Republican
Moss had defeated mainstream Republican David Lillard and was named to his
post basically by a Democrat-dominated coalition (the same coalition that
boosted lodge brother Shep Wilbun into the vacant Juvenile Court clerkship).
Moss, along with veteran Republican Clair VanderSchaaf (who voted with the
Democrats both times), was supposed to be dog meat for righteously vengeful
Republicans to gnaw on at re-election time in 2002.
So now builder Moss, whose ascension to the commission may have
been more a developers’ coup than anything expressly political, has tried to
accommodate himself to his fellow Republicans.
But things have become almost surreal: There was Moss after
Monday’s commission meeting complaining, “I don’t think we’re a solid enough
bloc. I don’t think we’re exacting enough in return for what we give up.” We?
Why, the Republican majority, of course!
“For example, we should have demanded a quid pro quo from the
Democrats when Bridget [Chisholm] came on,” Moss continued, referring to the
young African-American woman, hitherto a political unknown like himself who
was elected to the commission to replace Wilbun.
In other words, Tom Moss — who achieved office under the cloud
of Democratic sponsorship — has now become the most zealous of GOP partisans:
No more deals with the Democrats unless something of solid value to the
Republican coalition comes from it! It’s really quite remarkable, this
turnaround saga of Moss the hardnose.
Though there are those who maintain that Chisholm is in the same
developers’ camp as Moss, she herself boasts state Senator John Ford and U.S.
Rep. Harold Ford Jr. as her chief supporters. In a key vote Monday on a
Southeast Shelby County development resisted by its projected residential
neighbors, Chisholm voted one way (against), Moss voted another (for), and
VanderSchaaf voted yet a third way, proposing an amendment that would have
split the difference.
The project deadlocked at six to six and thereby died, although
it can — and probably will — be brought up for consideration again. But the
interesting fact about the vote was that none of the three supposed New Bloc
members were together on the deal.
It may be easier than one would have thought for Tom Moss to take
on protective coloration he’ll need for next year’s election season. At last
Saturday’s annual Shelby County Republican Lincoln Day Dinner at the Adam’s
Mark, Moss was observed having a chummy conversation with Chris Norris, the
ex-commissioner’s wife and a bedrock Republican in her own right.
That was followed by an even chummier conversation with county
GOP chairman Alan Crone, who was overheard asking the new commissioner out to
lunch.
The upshot of all this? Perhaps nothing more than a modification
of the old saw that “politics makes strange bedfellows.” Sudden ones, too, we
could add. Or maybe the point is that partisanship is a substance which these
days is thicker than blood or water.